Genre

Sum it up in a Sentence:

Gundam Wing and Gundam SEED are retarded, and this show illustrates that.

Main Description

Time: the year 2307 AD. Place: Earth. Fossil fuels have pretty much been depleted and mankind has turned to the sun for much of its power, constructing a huge ring of solar panels around the earth and connecting them to the ground via three orbital elevators. Each of these is controlled to a superpower: the Union of Solar Energy and Free Nations (used to be the United States, Canada, Australia, and Japan), the Human Reform League (an amalgamation of Russia, China, and India), and the Advanced European Union (Europe mostly, some of Africa might be in there too), and they in turn are in charge of rationing the power. Of course with haves, you also have have-nots, and many of the existing smaller nations want a greater say in who controls the elevators, and others want to seek alternative sources of energy. Hence, war, death and pain. BUT WAIT! A new organization has risen, named Celestial Being, with four unknown and extremely powerful giant robots, telling all the nations of the world to lay down their arms and give peace a chance... or else.

Major Characters

Celestial Being

The mysterious group that recently appeared and declared enforced peace to the world, and rains down destruction upon all who don't play ball, using never-before-seen giant robots, and then disappear just as quicky. They operate from a starship known as the Ptolemios, and plan their missions using a whiz-bang supercomputer called VEDA. This technology, as well as the plan they follow, is the brainchild of Aeolia Schenberg, a genius who lived some 200 years before with big plans for the world. The hypocrisy of waging war for peace has not escaped them, it's just that they do not especially care, for Schenberg has a plan.

Setsuna F. Seiei

The "main" character of the series. A Kurdish boy who grew up in the Middle East, which predictably went even more to shit when the oil dried up. Enlisted in a holy war at an extremely young age, he's been fighting for most of his life, and at 16, has grown to resent both God and war in general. His life was saved by a Gundam when he was younger, and so he's kind of got a... thing for them. Pilots the Gundam Exia.

Lockon Stratos

The sniper of the team, as the name would indicate. An Irishman whose family was killed in a terrorist act, and joins Celestial Being to get people to stop doing that, and maybe fin the guy who did it along the way. Is the most humane of the Gundam pilots (by virtue of having actually known a family in his life), and acts as big brother to the team. Pilots the Gundam Dynames.

(H)Alleluja Haptism

The third Gundam pilot (or should I say pilots). The product (and only survivor) of a failed Super Soldier program, he has developed a split personality, Halleluja, who is... rather antisocial, to say the least. Joined Celestial Being to stop such a program from happening again, and to give Halleluja an outlet for his more homicidal urges. Pilots the Gundam Kyrios.

Tieria Erde

Pilot of the fourth Gundam. He (yes, he)was part of the organization since birth, and he has a direct connection with VEDA. He's also pretty much a consequentialist jerk who only cares about THE PLAN, and would happily abandon anyone who stepped away from it. He pilots the Gundam Virtue.

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Personal Opinions

Note: This review is primarily about the second season, though it informs my opinion of the work as a whole.
If my posting history and username didn't tip you off already, I'm a huge Gundam fan. I loved the hell out of the first season, which spent its time shitting on the stupidity of SEED (preaching pacifism at gundampoint) and Wing, and was fascinated by the fact that the protagonists were essentially the villains. Gundam hadn't really done that since 0080, and those guys were far enough removed from Space Hitler that the moral gray of the Universal Century covered the antagonists well enough that they were fine as villains. Well then the second season started with a bang and I was extremely excited. Unfortunately, that was basically the last bang of the series, which introduced new characters and brought back old ones and immediately proceeded to accomplish nothing with most of them. The show wasn't bad per se, and there was definitely plenty of decent if unfulfilling action throughout, but it was essentially a waste of time. I mean, it's an enjoyable enough waste of time, but I was expecting more, especially given its pedigree. It's still pretty damn far from the worst part of the franchise, regardless of what some people were saying. 3/5

I'm thinking sometime after a few months have passed I'll probably re-watch the entire series, I saved up then watched 21 through 25 all in one day. Overall I was very satisfied with both seasons. A must see Gundam series to cleanse ones mind of Gundam SEED/Destiny. Out of giant robot shows, it earns a 5/5.

TannhauserGate

It seems like there's two groups of thought on 00. One is that the whole series is a meh show with outstanding robots and effects, the other is that Season 1 was quite good while Season 2 was trash. I'm in the latter camp. Season 1 tries to do a lot of cool things, like realistic portrayals of (distinctly post 9/11) terrorism. The robots are awesome, with some of my all-time favorite designs, and there's a lot of setup that that seems like it's going somewhere. There's even a pretty decent twist where the retarded love interest teenagers get real for a moment. Season 2, however, throws all of the setup of Season 1 out the window and it's pretty clear the writers had no idea where they were going. Season 2 wraps up with a teaser for a 00 movie, but by then you really don't care. Recommended for Gundam completionists, but everyone else can just see Season 1 and pretend Season 2 never happened.

Resurgam40

This is the second Gundam show that I have seen in its entirety(the first being SEED and Destiny), and speaking from that standpoint I liked it very much... mostly. The first season I found to be very good, actually approaching realism in its portrayal of its world. I know, the immediate cessation of warefare is hardly realistic, but I refer to the reaction to this announcement. Everyone decries it for the hypocrisy it is, and consequently tries to fight it, and this is not lost on the main characters themselves either, and I liked that. The series made sure to further the ambiguity by including both good and bad people on all sides, so that I was interested in whoever won and wanted some people on all areas to live (and to die). I was also impressed by the deconstruction of a lot of Mecha conventions everywhere, namely the 16 year old soldier, the normal guy falling into the cockpit who just wants to be left alone, and the peace seeking idol singer. The main character is the teen soldier taken to his logical conclusion, i.e an emotionally damaged, PTSD ridden WRECK; his next door neighbor, the idealist who thinks "killing's wrong; we should be nice" is put through the wringer, and the pacifist princess... well, she doesn't end up very well either. All in all, I was really excited for next season... and then it came.

While the second season isn't bad in the same way SEED Destiny was bad, I didn't like it as much as the first season. They got rid of the ambiguity by creating one unambiguously bad side, whom everyone I sympathized with eventually turned against, and it ended so... neat. They also introduced a slew of new characters, and tried to juggle developing them with developing the old ones too. (come to think of it, that happened in seed as well; might be a thing with this series.) However, I don't hate it as much as others because there were some really good bits along with the ridiculous ones, and no one I was familiar with really suffered from a character devolvement. It was also well animated through and the mecha were well designed, and although the writers missed the mark on getting there the beginning and end point does make sense. So in short I enjoyed it better than SEED (not that that's particularly hard, mind you) even towards the end when it did make a whoopsie on itself, so give it a go but don't expect much from the end.